


liquid sunshine

by censei_wrong



Category: Finder no Hyouteki | Finder Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Convenience Store, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bankruptcy, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Slow Burn, Weight Gain, akihito is a highschool dropout, body image issues, they meet in a typhoon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 00:41:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7663471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/censei_wrong/pseuds/censei_wrong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Asami closed his eyes and let the rain drum on his heavy eyelids. He knew in his heart that this was the end of the line. Everything he had worked for went to shit because of him. Asami just wanted to lay there on the blacktop forever.</p><p>That was his plan, until an overweight cashier drags him into a dingy convenience store and changes his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	liquid sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> i love the idea of a flawed akihito x asami story. so this lil chestnut started germinating, and now you guys can have snarky aki one liners and asami's peanut butter smoothness in one fic. 
> 
> DISCLAIMER:   
> there is talk about body image issues, and akihito dislikes how much weight he has put on. HOWEVER, this will not be one of the fics where the character suddenly loses lots of weight and becomes a happy lil bean. i am planning for akihito to lose weight, but that's because he changes his diet and starts taking care of himself. he will not be the same physically as the manga aki, but he will be happy with his body!

The rain lashed and pounded on the windows of the dimly lit convenience store. Akihito shifted again on his wooden stool, his head in the clouds. "I wonder if there's anyone out there right now," he mumbled to himself, mostly just to hear his own voice. It's been three lonely hours since he last saw a customer, and the typhoon didn't seem to be letting up soon.

He swept a rag over the dinged up metal counter. It was spotless, but Akihito had nothing else to do. The store was small, so cleaning was an easy task. He took the graveyard shift for the marginal raise in pay and as a result, frazzled businessmen and drunks were his only company. It was a dismal job with little reward, and his suffering is only worsened by his manager Mitarai.

Akihito winced at the memory of Mitarai taunting him as he scrubbed the last of the spilled beer off the floor. "Make it spotless - I don't want to see any of your fatty grease staining my floor when you're done." the manager sneered, his cold blue eyes flashing in disgust.

Between the late working hours, stress, and bad diet, Akihito had lost the slender figure he cherished. He used to stand in front of the mirror before school and run his hands over his tight stomach and wiry arms. After he chose not to go to college in the city, Akihito had put on fifty pounds and experienced explosions of acne that blemished his once pale skin. It scattered across his back and along his chest, causing needles of pain as he pulled on his coarse work uniform every morning.

 _It's worth it,_ Akihito thought stubbornly, chewing his lip between his teeth. _Baasan needed her medication and it's only right that I care for her._ Once his relatives in the city had heard about the incurable disease his grandmother had been diagnosed with, they ignored the desperate calls he sent day after day. Now it was just Akihito and his grandmother in a two bedroom apartment that was barely covered by his measly income.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the store for one brilliant second. The booming crash of the heavens breaking open jolted Akihito from his thoughts. The paneled lights flickered once with a soft hiss. 

He decided to take a short stretch break and get rid of the nagging self-pity he found himself wallowing in way too often. Akihito stumbled off the stool with a huff and crossed one arm over the other, pulling back to loosen the muscles that bunched up with disuse. His gaze aimlessly roved over the merchandise, but something caught his eye in the rain sleeting down outside.

Akihito limped over for a better look, ignoring the pins and needles that crawled all over his legs. He squinted, but the torrent blurred his vision. 

Grabbing one of the cheap 1000 yen umbrellas, he swung open the door, and nature's roaring filled his ears. Akihito made his way across the parking lot clutching his flimsy umbrella as the rain chilled him to the bone. Wind buffeted his body as he struggled to reach what caught his eye.

At first, it's just a bulky mass. But as Akihito neared, the shape resolved itself to be an unconscious man. 

Panic flitted through him as Akihito fell clumsily to his knees. "Oh my - Sir? Sir! Can you hear me? Are you alright?" His voice bordered on frantic as he rolled the stranger over and stared at his face for any signs of life.

The man groaned, the sound barely audible over the beating rain. Akihito inwardly praised the gods. He slung the stranger's arm over his shoulder, yelling, "I'm going to take you into the store, okay? Just hold on!"

 _Jesus, does this guy eat cement for breakfast?_ Akihito gasped as he struggled futilely to pick up the man. Wheezing, his sneakers flooded with water, he decided to just drag the man into the store. It was only fifty meters or so to the door.

The storm pelted Akihito's face and neck with ice-cold water as he laboriously lugged the man across the parking lot. The stranger stayed unconscious, and his head lolled to the side as Akihito pulled and pulled on his armpits. 

Finally, Akihito reached the door, and bumped it open with his butt. With some awkward shuffling and strategic moves, he managed to get all of the man inside. Unfortunately, he lost the umbrella. _Godspeed comrade,_ Akihito thought, panting and rubbing his sore back. _You served me well._

After he took a few seconds to catch his breath, Akihito looked over to the man, who was still out cold. Black hair is plastered on his forehead, and his reasonable business suit clung to his well-built form. An aquiline nose led up to harsh eyebrows, furrowed even in unconsciousness. The stranger tossed his head like an irascible horse, muttering imperceptibly. 

But holy _fuck_ is he gorgeous.

"Thank you, gods, for finally bestowing a hot guy on me!" Akihito giggled, despite himself. Here he was, soaked to the bone with a passed out man in a cramped convenience store. _Now there's a good porn plot._ Akihito couldn't help it.

"All right, let's get to business!" Akihito wrestled the limp man out of his shoes and jacket. He grabbed a fleece blanket from the camping section and laid it over the man. He also took a couple of soups and warmed them up in the microwave stationed in the break room. Thinking that they'll both dry faster, Akihito turned up the thermostat until it was toasty warm. The last of the uncontrollable shivers Akihito didn't even notice he had faded from his body as the heat brought life back to his arms and legs.

Akihito plopped himself down next to the stranger cradling a cup of hot soup. Spooning meat and chicken broth into his mouth, he allowed himself to make up a story about his mystery man. It's his favorite thing to do about customers, and well, he really did have a flair for creating dramatic backstories.

"Y'know, I bet you're a gangster, ousted by his fellow men after you botched a job and allowed a witness to escape," Akihito said around a mouthful of scalding meat. He snorted out loud at the thought of an unmarked car dropping off the man in the parking lot and squealing away. As if the Yakuza would want to do business in a rural farming town.

Waving his plastic spoon in the air, he mused, "Or maybe, you cheated on your wife after years of incompatibility in a loveless marriage. An arranged marriage, which pleased your parents but made you a sad, lonely man." Akihito accentuated this last part with a dramatic slant of his eyebrows. "And then, just then, you met a young prostitute with a heart of gold that you fell head over heels in love with! Classic boy meets unlikely angel trope, right?" He nudged the man softly with his foot.

To his surprise, the man moaned and blearily opened his eyes. "Who are you?" He croaked, casting his glance over Akihito's shellshocked expression. 

Akihito felt like a bug pinned under a microscope under the man's _distractingly_ golden eyes. "Uh - I mean - Well, you see - Ahh..." Suddenly, his brain failed him. _Yes, Akihito, you are totally a coherent adult who can formulate words._ Akihito thought angrily.

The man returned to his supine position, and his hard gaze finally eased off Akihito. Letting out a sigh of relief, Akihito explained quickly so he wouldn't royally fuck up his sentences. 

"I found you outside in the parking lot. You were unconscious, and there’s a pretty dangerous typhoon going on, so I brought you in here." Akihito winced as the stare returns in full blast.

The man glared at him for a long while, his eyes the exact color as frigid copper. Finally, he opened his mouth. "Thank you."

 _Thank you? Is that all I'm gonna get? At least tell me some sort of backstory or collapse into my arms in tears! This bastard is ice-cold._ Akihito brooded grumpily, but plastered a smile on to acknowledge the stranger's thanks. 

His soup long-forgotten, Akihito got to his feet. "I'll get you something hot to eat, okay? You were out there for a pretty long time, and I don't want you getting pneumonia." 

Akihito walked behind the counter and into the break room. He poured canned chicken noodle into a bowl and placed it in the microwave.

With the machine humming away, he could finally collect himself. A warm flush of embarrassment colored his cheeks as Akihito remembered how tongue-tied he had been in front of an admittedly _very_ attractive person. "There goes my chance at being wrapped up in the brawny arms of a mysterious hot guy," Akihito sighed, closing his eyes. 

"Is the soup done?" A smooth, calculated voice roused Akihito from his drowsiness. The man stood in the doorway of the break room, and had evidently reclaimed his suit jacket and shoes.

Akihito quelled the need to crawl in the corner and die of a heart attack, and managed to slap on his customer service smile. "Yeah, let me just take it out for you." He opened the microwave door and snagged a spoon for the piping hot soup. 

"Here you go," Akihito murmured. "Be careful though, it's very ho-" The man received it and completely forgoed the spoon. 

Akihito watched, wincing, as the steaming broth is emptied into the stranger's mouth. Sated, the man set down the bowl and nodded in thanks.

"I apologize for disturbing you. Compensation for the soup and blanket is on your counter. I'll be going now." With a clack of his loafers, the man turned on his heel and walked out of the door. 

Dumbfounded, Akihito lingered for a few confused moments. But the sound of thunder booming and torrential rain finally alerts him, and he fumbled his way out.

"W-wait! Did you forget that there's a pretty bad storm out there? It's dangerous outside, so I really think you should just wait until it's over." Akihito blurted out. God, sometimes his mouth moved faster than his brain. The guy obviously felt like Akihito was a shady weirdo who wanted to keep him in his basement as an unwilling lover. Or something.

He stopped mid-stride. The man adjusted the lapels of his jacket, and by the minuscule shift in his expression, seemed to have came to a conclusion.

"I'll call my secretary to come pick me up. I don't want to impose on you further." Those scalding eyes burned a hole into Akihito, challenging him to counter.

 _Stony bastard thinks I'm going to back down, huh? Well, guess what, bitch, I care!_ To be honest, it's not the best of retaliatory gestures, but who could just let those muscles perish in some stupid typhoon? 

Akihito pulled on a mildly concerned, big-eyed look. "Please, sir, your secretary could get killed out there. The typhoon will move on after a couple of hours, so you should just contact him to tell him that you're all right and wait." 

Impassively, the man's eyes swept up and down Akihito's body. He shifted uneasily, uncomfortable with the fact that such an aristocratic, suave man was currently inspecting every nook and cranny of his flawed appearance. Akihito desperately wanted to cover up the blemishes that blotted his forehead or mask the reek of his nervous sweat.

The man's expression resembled Akihito's late mother after encountering a particularly brazen door-to-door salesman. He closed the distance between them with two long strides. The sudden closeness sent shivers down Akihito's spine and he suddenly had a distressing need to look down in submission.

Despite the alarm bells going off, Akihito met and held his stare. If it's a battle of wills Hot Mean Guy wants, that's what he'll get. Akihito doesn't even know why he's arguing with this clearly superior man, but some of his old spitfire determination had come back and Akihito will not give up that easily.

Blue, stubborn eyes glared icily at the man, as if daring him to turn down the offer. The taller male scoffed under his breath derisively, and conceded. "Then, I'll do as you say..." he raised one eyebrow lazily.

 _Does this guy hear himself? I save his life, possibly even the life of his secretary, and he has the goddamn gall to treat me like a lower level employee?!_ Nevertheless, Asami is technically a customer, so Akihito sucked in a calming breath. 

"I'm Takaba Akihito, nice to meet you." A sly smile crept onto Asami-san's face, like Akihito somehow surrendered to him. _Laugh it up bastard, I have laxatives that I can dump in your soup anytime._ "May I ask for your name?"

"Asami Ryuichi. Pleasure to meet you."

Akihito walked back to the counter and grabbed his wooden stool, lifting it over the counter and in front of the tattered lottery posters. "Here, you can rest for a bit and I'll bring you some coffee." He walked back into the break room, ignoring Asami's blistering stare.

Resisting the temptation to tip a whole box of Dulcolax into the steaming brew, Akihito raided his snack stash for a few 100 yen snacks and biscuits. "Can't believe I just slid into the maid role so easily! What happened to confident, assertive Aki?" he muttered discontentedly under his breath. Akihito berated himself as he arranged the food on a plastic plate and poured the coffee into a mug. After considering Asami-san's snobbishness, he decided to leave out the milk and sugar.

Asami was still there, only now he was smoking a cigarette. He seemed deep in thought, and Akihito wished he still had a camera to capture this moment. The dim yellow lights cast fascinating shadows across Asami-san's face and smoke wreathed its way around his black locks. 

Leaving the snacks and coffee near the pensive man, Akihito retreated into the break room to text his neighbor. Mrs. Yamada was a forty year old woman who held a job in graphic design. She was a night owl that often took late-night walks, and helped take care of Akihito's grandmother while he was at work.

**This typhoon is really bad. Is everything ok?**

After a few seconds, Akihito's cell chimed with a response.

**Takaba-san is worried about you, but other than that, everything is fine!**

He turned his phone off, breathing a sigh of relief. Akihito constantly worried about his Baasan since she was practically the only family he had left. He still remembered the musky summers when he used to visit her and pick fruit from her orchard.

Now the orchard was property of a big-name land developer, and the spacious home where he spent his teenage days was razed to the ground to make space for a gas station. Akihito recalled the heaving sobs that bubbled up his throat as he watched bulldozers crush the humble porch he played cards on and destroy the white-washed wood he spent ages memorizing each whorl. 

He used to live a hard but fulfilling life. His parents died when he was in middle school, but his grandmother took him in and loved him enough to make up for two people. Akihito was addicted to gymnastics and the high jump was his favorite. His lithe body would twist and writhe in the air, and spectators rubbed their eyes in shock when they realized that there weren't any wings sprouting from his lean back. The euphoria Akihito felt up there, suspended by nothing, was incomparable.

Despite his boundless energy and infectious enthusiasm, Akihito could stay in one place for hours at time, preparing for the perfect shot on his Canon EOS DC3 with his Image Stabilizer. He relished the fact that he could have the image immediately, and adoringly cared for his most prized possession.

This beautiful, shimmering contentment was shattered one day like wispy glass spun too thin. His grandmother was diagnosed with amyloidosis, a rare disease that built up in the organs and body tissues, slowly poisoning the body until it was too late. She had to receive chemotherapy and steroid medication, but it had almost no effect on the rate at which her kidneys were declining. Luckily, the disease only affected around eight percent of her kidneys so she was blessed with a longer lifespan than most.

The treatments quickly depleted their savings, and Akihito was forced to ditch college to care for her. The only job that would take in a high school dropout was the convenience store. Akihito always prepared porridge and steamed vegetables for her breakfast while he subsisted on greasy buns. They lived in this purgatory, barely scraping by on Mrs. Yamada's pity casseroles and cup ramen.

The pain of watching his best friends Kou and Takato waving goodbye to him as the Tokyo train rumbled away flared up in his chest. Akihito coughed to try and get rid of the prickling cotton ball that lodged in his throat. He wiped away any errant tears and held his breath, counting to ten. As he released it, Akihito felt much calmer.

Asami was in the same position as before, except the coffee was gone and there were a couple more yen on the counter. Akihito cleared his throat. "Do you feel a little better now?" He asked tentatively.

A faint smile graced Asami's face, but it was as cool and still as his usual impassive expression. "Yes, thank you."

Akihito felt curiosity bubble up. He _really_ wanted to know if his initial predictions were correct. _How do I phrase this without sounding too interested? Right, think, channel your inner charisma..._

"So what brings you around these parts?" Shit. Fuck. He sounded like a Southern belle looking to get some from a grizzled cowboy. _God, I really need to stop watching old Westerns._

Asami seemed undisturbed by the incidentally sexual subtext. He took a long drag on his cigarette, and released the smoke through his nose.

"I had an IT firm, and I took a huge risk a few months ago. It went... not according to my expectations, and we lost everything. We filed bankruptcy today. So, as all failures do, I drowned myself in alcohol and passed out in your parking lot. Classic boy meets devastation of career story, right?" Asami punctuated this with an asinine grin.

Akihito flushed. He couldn't believe the man was awake when he said all of those ridiculous things.

But what was more surprising was the way Asami carried himself. He did not seem like a man who lost everything and turned to alcohol. His spine was straight, and his strong jaw was set in an unshakable determination. 

Akihito decided to hazard one more invasive question. "So, what are you going to do now?" He asked, craning his head to try and catch the flashes of emotion across Asami's stony face that would tell him something. 

Asami remained inscrutable. Another pull on the cigarette was the only indicator that Asami was contemplating Akihito's question. 

"I don't know." he said. It was delivered with a desolate kind of finality.

Akihito frowned. This man reeked of potential and superiority, it almost seemed taboo to have his success undermined so early. Asami-san epitomized leadership, and Akihito had no doubt that his employees were extremely loyal to him. “What happened? You seem like you know business.”

Asami-san frowned. “Apparently, I didn't.” 

Akihito could feel the tension radiating from the man. He should stop, but fuck it, it's against the laws of nature for this man not to be splashed across the covers of _Forbes_ or _Fortune 500_! Akihito had to do something. "I think you're giving up too early. Even looking at you, I can tell that you're an incredibly smart leader, and you have loyal people standing by you! I mean, you knew that your secretary would drive through a storm, an actual fucking _typhoon_ for your drunk ass. You don't belong here. You belong at the top, and honestly, Asami-san, fuck anyone who thinks different." 

A thick silence surrounded the two as they digested Akihito's outburst. 

_Oh wow, so now you're a motivational speaker? You can barely even open a fucking jam jar!_ Akihito badly wanted to edit the last two minutes, fuck his _entire_ life out of existence. Judging by the rabbiting beat of his heart, Akihito wasn't done suffering yet. 

Asami's face was blank. Akihito couldn't get a read on him.

Akihito held his breath, waiting for Asami-san to yell at him or just sucker punch him. He deserved it after the stunt he pulled.

"...I see." Asami's perfect lips barely moved.

_What the fuck?_ "I see?" _Are you commenting on the weather? This is your entire future I'm scolding you about!_ Akihito thought incredulously. 

Before Akihito could filter out the curse words and spit the thought back out, Asami was off the stool in one swift motion. 

The jingle of the bell on top of the door bade Akihito farewell. A fine drizzle was coming down, but Asami-san seemed to pay no heed to the rapidly appearing flecks on his suit.

Akihito was at a loss for words. This time, he did not try to stop Asami.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! this is my first fic in this fandom, so please tell me where i should improve or give me some advice!


End file.
